


Memory of Summer

by clearumbrella



Category: K-pop, SHINee
Genre: M/M, Summer, minkey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 01:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11325918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clearumbrella/pseuds/clearumbrella
Summary: Summer is Minho's favourite season because summer is when he and Kibum fell in love.





	Memory of Summer

Minho waits patiently at the table for his friends to show up. This was the first time he’d seen Jinki since college a year earlier. The midsummer sun shone down on him. Summer was his favourite season. Summer was Kibum’s hands in his hair, summer was marshmallows and whispers under bright golden stars.

Jinki arrives first, as he always does. Jinki was usually first. He always came first in college, for instance. He was also first to realize that what Minho and Kibum had was more than just ordinary friendship; he was the first to realize that when college came to an end there would be no more late night sneaking out to the nearest bar, no more laughing so hard until their stomachs ached with happiness.

“Hey, Minho.” Minho hugged him tightly, noting as he did so how tense Jinki’s shoulder were, how tired his face had become. “Jonghyun and Taemin can’t make it, you know that right?”

“Yeah, I know. It’s been a while, yeah? How has everything been for you since graduation? How’s the job working out?” Minho doesn’t understand why for a moment Jinki looks as though he’s drowning, but he forgets about it soon enough as they begin catching up on their lives, talking about college where Minho and Jonghyun were always the ones picking up chicks together while Taemin got shot down, Key got drunk and Jinki made sure that nobody had their car keys.

“When is Kibum getting here?” Minho asks. They’d been friends through the whole of college. But that last summer, one drink led to another which led to another which led to a conversation which changed everything. A couple of drunken nights later, they were fast friends. More drunken nights saw them tumble into bed together. Eventually the drunken nights faded into sober ones and the sober ones faded into nights when love curled itself around their intertwined fingers, around the curls in Kibum’s drying hair, pulling them in closer and closer together. Minho didn’t believe in soulmates, but if he did, Kibum would be his. They weren’t like two halves of a whole, because halves ended somewhere and sometimes Minho didn’t know where he ended and Kibum began.

“M-Minho, ya,” Jinki’s voice breaks, and the sadness in his voice surprises Minho because Jinki was always happy.

“What’s the matter? Why- Why are you-“ Minho asks. “What happened?” Jinki answers, straining under the weight of the burden he took it upon himself to carry, because if he didn’t look after these idiots who would?

“Minho, it’s not the year after we graduated anymore,” he says softly and as he speaks Minho can hear Kibum’s voice “It’s not the year after we graduated anymore” and suddenly he realizes that he must know why Jinki is crying because he can feel the sadness seeping into his bones too.

“Then- when?” Minho asks, his heart beating faster, his breath getting shorter, his mind reeling, his skin feeling cold.

“It’s- it’s been nine years, Minho.”

  _“It’s been four years, Minho.”_

“Where’s Kibum?” Minho breathes, but he knows, he knows where Kibum must be because why else would he have not shown up yet, why would he hide from Minho?

  _“I’ll take care of you, I promise.”_

_“How will you do that you idiot, you can barely take care of yourself.”_

_“Kibum, I promise you I will take care of you.”_

_“Oh, Minho. How will you remember that I am sick?”_

“Where’s Kibum? Where’s Kibum?” And then he knows, he knows that he breath coming out in shallow gasps is not his, he is not really sitting here in this café, he is standing in front of a white hospital bed as the man in front of him fights for air and for life, fights to hold Minho’s hand one last time.

  _“I’ll- I’ll take care of you Kibum please, you can’t go, please, not now.”_

_Kibum's laugh is a pale imitation of the real thing. The disease had turned all his laughter into pain._

_“I was the one who was supposed to take care of you.”_

_“Kibum, I-“ No this can't be real this is just a nightmare that Kibum will shake him awake from, this can't be real-_

_“Will you forget me, Minho?”_

_“How could I ever-“_

_“You will. One day, you will forget all this. But promise me something.”_

_“Anything.”_

_“Don’t forget that summer. Don’t forget that summer we fell in love. You don’t even have to remember my name, or my face, or my voice. Just remember that you loved someone, and that someone loved you back and loved you until the end.”_

“You have early onset Alzheimer’s, Minho,” says Jinki, blinking back tears and Minho nods numbly because he’s heard these words before but he didn’t remember them until now.

“I can’t remember, I couldn’t remember Kibum, I couldn’t-“ three years with Kibum, three precious, precious years crumbled into dust in one instant, and now only moments remained and how long would it be before those were gone too, how long until it was like Kibum had never existed?

“It’s been five years since Kibum-“says Jinki. “You remembered at first, but then you forgot, and… It’s not your fault, the disease eats away at your brain. Kibum would understand.”

“I have to remember him. I-I have to remember that summer, I promised,” says Minho. He could not forget. How could he forget Kibum, strong and brave, fighting until the end against an enemy he could not defeat, always, always, until the last moment, making sure that Minho remembered to take his pills and wash his clothes. Always making sure Minho remembered that someone loved him.

Jinki takes Minho's hand gently. “Of course you’ll remember that summer. Of course you’ll remember Kibum,” says Jinki, his eyes smiling sadly, his voice struggling to hide the lie.

In the end, Minho forgot that summer. He forgot Kibum’s name, his face, his voice. He only knew that he had loved someone once, and someone had loved him back. Someone had loved him until the end.


End file.
